John White: La. should embrace Common Core standards

In 2009, Louisiana education officials recognized that our state’s academic expectations were not as advanced as were the expectations in many other states.

Louisiana students, for example, were not required to count to large numbers. As they got older, they struggled when dividing large numbers into smaller pieces. As a result in later years they struggled with fractions, equations, and so on. The end result was lower college graduation rates and a less prepared workforce.

Louisiana officials thus participated in creating the Common Core State Standards, ensuring students in our state would be taught skills no less advanced than in any other state. More than 100 educators across Louisiana then formed committees to review the standards, ultimately recommending to the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education that they be adopted. Louisiana also joined a consortium of states, called PARCC, to develop a test that measures students’ attainment of those skills and shows how well our state stacks up against others.

As with any change, the transition to these higher expectations has not been easy. Teachers, students, and parents have made significant adjustments. And, as it often does, politics found its way into the mix. But this week saw two important milestones that indicate that we are on the right track.

First, roughly 99 percent of students took the PARCC test this week.

While there had been concerns over a large exodus, only a small number of outlier schools experienced low rates of participation. In addressing these outlier circumstances, BESE has committed that it will not denigrate schools or communities, and I have invited superintendents in those areas to a face-to-face meeting at which we can discuss solutions.

That such a significant share of our state’s students participated allows us an accurate “baseline” measurement of our students’ skills, providing for the first time ever a fair comparison of elementary and middle school student performance in Louisiana with that of states across the country.

The second milestone was the announcement of a sensible plan to keep standards and tests consistent for educators in the future, while ensuring they are unique to Louisiana.

Two weeks ago, a group of bi-partisan state legislators called for BESE to conduct a formal review of each Common Core standard. The legislators also called on BESE to issue a request for proposals for a new state testing contract in advance of current contracts expiring this June.

BESE President Roemer agreed with the legislators, arguing for a review process involving use of online technology so that all Louisianans could provide input.

BESE supported both ideas with a unanimous vote, requiring the Department of Education to produce both a proposal for conducting the standards review process and a request for proposals for a Louisiana test.

This week, the Department responded, proposing a standards review process that involves an online review period open to all Louisianans followed by a review by expert Louisiana educators.

The Department also shared the outline of a request for proposals for a future testing contract, open to all bidders. The test would measure state standards and would produce results comparable to other states. To ensure consistency for teachers, the test would include but not be limited to the type of PARCC questions included this year. The tests would also reduce the duplicative tests given in high school and would provide teachers in all grades a tool for diagnosing student skills at the beginning of the year.

These two common sense proposals build on this baseline year to ensure future consistency for teachers and results comparable to other states, while making sure that both the standards and the tests are unique to Louisiana.

Common sense, of course does not prevail in all corners. One extreme proposal issued this week, and backed by Gov. Bobby Jindal, would require that Louisiana schools go back in time to the standards last approved in 2004. Even worse, the proposal would also require a statewide vote of every legislator and local school board member in order to update the standards, a costly process sure to confuse educators.

If common sense prevails, however, we will take pride in what we have already achieved and embrace a pragmatic approach to the future. We can now say that we compete on a level field with any state in America, and that there is no good in going back. The children of Louisiana are as smart and as capable as any in other in this country, and they deserve no less.